Olympic Champion Still Getting Big Air

The Olympic gold medalist in freestyle aerials has had a frenetic schedule since the Nagano Games ended nearly three weeks ago, racking up frequent-flyer miles a flight attendant would be proud of. In just the last 10 days or so, Bergoust has traveled from his home in Missoula, Mont., to Las Vegas, to Los Angeles, back to Vegas, to Altenmark, Austria, for last weekend's final World Cup event and then to South Lake Tahoe to prepare for this weekend's Sprint Bumps and Jumps competition at Heavenly Ski Resort.

Lest he get too used to being in one spot for too long, he flew to Florida yesterday to film a promotional gig and will return to Tahoe tonight for tomorrow's aerial event.

"Nagano seems like a long time ago; so much has been going on," Bergoust said Tuesday from his hotel room in Tahoe. "At one point I didn't sleep for two days (because) I was too busy."

Despite all the running around, Bergoust cleanly nailed a couple of jumps to win the Altenmark event and finish the World Cup season in fourth place.

"I was pretty amazed with my jumping," he said. "I hadn't jumped in, like, a month (since the Olympic final on February 18) and I wasn't feeling all that great. But I went for it."

INJURED RIBS

The reason Bergoust "wasn't feeling all that great" last Friday was because on a training jump an hour or so before the Olympic final, he crashed and hurt his ribs.

"I couldn't take a full breath; I was in so much pain," he said, adding that the pain is with him still. "But I couldn't miss (the final). After 10 years of work and 10,000 jumps, it was time to jump."

For Bergoust, there was no other option. After spending most of his 28 years leaping off things -- the chimney of his boyhood home in Missoula being perhaps the most notorious launching point -- freestyle aerials are the height of his existence.

"I've kept my priorities in this order: First, get enough training time in; second, promote the sport of aerials; and then way down on the list is anything I can get for myself," said the man who keeps his Olympic gold medal on his person at all times. "I take this sport very seriously."

That mission statement includes even a seeming goof like the Bumps and Jumps series, which is a made-for-TV, three- event circuit (previous competitions this season were held in Steamboat and Breckenridge, Colo.) that has a limited, invitation- only field.

'BEST IN THE WORLD'

"We've got some of the best jumpers in the world," Bergoust said. "Guys like (American) Britt Swartley, (Canadian) Andy Capicik and Nicolas Fontaine. These are some good guys.

"And I hope to win -- I always hope to win."

And that's what keeps Eric Bergoust flying.

NOTES: The field for the aerial competition, which will start at 4 p.m. tomorrow near the bottom of the Gunbarrel run, also will include Olympic bronze medalist Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus. . . . The mogul competition, also on the Gunbarrel run, will take place on Saturday, with qualifying runs at 10 a.m. and the finals beginning at 1 p.m.

Among the Bumps entrants are Nelson Carmichael, the former U.S. team member who won the Olympic moguls gold in '92, and Chuck Martin, Carmichael's onetime teammate who took the bronze medal at the '91 World Championships. . . . Jonny Moseley, the '98 Olympic gold medalist in the moguls, will perform an exhibition run just before the finals. . . . The entire event will be broadcast on Fox next Saturday at 10 a.m.